


Wonder Room

by ThatMasterOnline



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28209051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatMasterOnline/pseuds/ThatMasterOnline
Summary: Ever wonder why Illumi Zoldyck, a trained assassin, came second place in Trick Tower? Here's my take on what took so long.Ft. the adorable card scene from the 1999 anime, because how can you talk about Trick Tower and not talk about the adorable card scene.
Relationships: Hisoka/Illumi Zoldyck
Comments: 1
Kudos: 85





	Wonder Room

The moment the other candidates began to hum and haw about how they were meant to get down the tower, "Gittarackur" made his way to the edge of the tower and slipped into one of the many obvious trap doors in the top of the tower. Immediately, a monitor turned on, revealing a man with glasses and a pink mohawk.

"Oh ho, impressive!" he said, "I would almost think you've been here before."

Illumi chattered at him to acknowledge the compliment.

"Well, my name is Lippo, and I control everything that happens here in Trick Tower. Go ahead and slip that on your wrist for me." Illumi picked up the watch from the pedestal and put it on.

"You seem smart enough, so I'm sure I don't need to tell you that watch is tracking how much time you have left. Now, you seem like a bit of a lone wolf, so you'll be delighted to know that you've stumbled on the Wonder Room Path, and you just make your way through by your lonesome. Don't think the path is any easier because you're by yourself, though...You might find it's quite the opposite. Enjoy~" Illumi began clattering toward the first door. When it closed, he was in a hall that glittered, with floors and walls and ceilings absolutely identical. Each section of mirror showed a man sitting on the floor, dressed in prison garb. Farther away, a woman sat, clearly waiting her turn. A maze with identical walls. Like a hall of mirrors. Was this meant to be a challenge?

"Someone's here already?" The man drawled, dozens of mouths moving in unison. Illumi ignored the reflections, turning to look the man directly in the eye, and was gratified when he stuttered to a stop from shock. Illumi turned away and started walking. 

"Think you can find your way out of the maze?" The man asked, "Well, go ahead and try, if you like…"

It was indeed a maze, and Illumi took the slow route, wandering down every path, hitting dead-ends, then retracing his steps. He had seventy-two hours, and even if he sat and took a nap for sixty of them he'd still make it with time to spare. 

The prisoners weren't even remotely subtle about their intentions. They were giving him directions, relying on his untrustworthy nature. The man told him to go left, knowing he'd doubt and go right, and he was clearly leading him to a dead end, where he'd ambush the "helpless" Illumi. Well, he'd play along. He had time to kill, and the exam had been quite boring so far. He could use some entertainment. Another prisoner was watching him as well, no doubt with their own plans to ambush him.

Once Illumi had been successfully "herded" into the dead end, the prisoner showed himself.

"I wasn't expecting you to fall into my trap," the man said, "But for every hour we delay you, it's a year off our sentence. If we incapacitate you, it's seventy-two years deducted. Sorry, my clattery friend, but I'm taking you down." The man charged, and Illumi dodged out of the way. The man tried again, but it was a frontal assault. Pretty boring, honestly. Illumi stabbed the man with his needles and kept walking.

The woman in the mirrors perked up, and Illumi knew she'd be his next opponent.

"Not bad," she said. Illumi ignored her.

"I'll need to step up my game to beat you~" No amount of step up could defeat him. Honestly, the woman's best course of action would be to stay out of his way. But, since that wouldn't happen...well, it was unfortunate for her. To her credit, she did indeed step up her game. She was capable of manipulating string, and she made several attempts to cut his arms off. Any normal person's arm would have been severed, but Illumi wasn't a normal person. The wires were at best a slight hindrance to his walking. The woman was clearly getting frustrated, and she varied her attacks. She was clearly attempting to use the mirrors to her advantage, and no doubt the wires' direction would otherwise be very difficult to spot. But deception came second nature to an assassin like him. 

Illumi found himself at a dead end, but the woman didn't attack him. Of course, direct attacks would be a poor choice for her. Oh well. It looked like the woman would live, after all. At least, as long as she didn't piss him off too much.

After a few more dead ends, Illumi found what seemed to be the way through the maze. Suddenly the ceiling opened and water was dropped directly onto him. A second later, the floor beneath him opened, and dropped him down to the next level of the maze. The general principle of this one was the same, with one major exception: The walls were all made of ice. Clearly, they intended him to freeze to death. Well, Illumi would play along. Mother would be glad to know he hadn't neglected his training.

As expected, his clothes and hair had all frozen within a few minutes. He fought back the urge to shiver, and kept walking. There weren't even any opponents on this floor. Really, this was child's play. Killua could have done this when he was four. Well...perhaps five. He'd gone through a phase at four, complained so loudly about torture resistance training…

The floor opened again after a few minutes of wandering through the maze. It was a slide this time, and it dumped directly into open air. The heat was intense, and it was no great wonder why. Below him was a massive pit of lava. 

Ah, Killua might not have been able to do this after all, Illumi thought as he focused his nen to create a stepping stone and hopped to one of the platforms, Killua hadn't learned about nen yet. Immediately the platform began to slowly sink into the lava. Illumi hopped to the next platform, and then to the next, and then to the next, and then to the exit. There was a slide leading him down to another floor, and Illumi took it.

The next floor looked like a regular maze with the usual stone walls, except it was littered with holes everywhere. And there was a man standing in front of him. Another prisoner.

"Hiya," he greeted, "It's my job to tell you that this here is a three-tier maze. That is, the maze is three floors tall. We're on the top floor, the exit is somewhere on the bottom floor. And while you're going through, there will be people waiting to stop you. Like me." The man cracked his knuckles, but Illumi had dealt with him a moment later.

Illumi knew that at some point once he was on the bottom floor he'd have to backtrack and go up. It was an obvious trick, so he took care of anyone in his way - and there were quite a few -, took a meandering route up and down the maze, and "lucked out" in finding the right path. Things like this were always easier once you'd figured out the trick. The trick for this Lippo character was clearly to think 'what would make this as tricky and frustrating as possible?' and then prepare for that eventuality.

Stepping onto the next floor, Illumi saw a sign saying 'goal' pointing down at the far side of the room. Hope. It was meant to give hope to an exhausted exam-taker...hope that would be dashed the moment they arrived. Thankfully Illumi wasn't made to hope. 

He took it slow again, mapping out the maze the normal way. After he'd tried one path and hit a dead end, he went back to try the other path.

Only to find that it wasn't there any more.

The walls moved, but Illumi was less upset about that than about the fact that he hadn't realized. Why hadn't he realized? Ah, stone walls that size shifting would creat sound, and Illumi had heard nothing. An illusion? There was no nen to be found, but Illumi put a hand on the wall, just to be sure. Yes, that was a real wall. Very impressive, to be able to move these giant walls soundlessly, and yet that power was being wasted on a little trick. To be fair, though, the average person taking this route might have been broken by this point. However, despite the original second path having been closed, there was now a new one open. He took it. 

It took slightly longer than before, having to work around changing walls, but he did eventually reach the "goal", and was not even remotely surprised to find it firmly shut. A speaker on the ceiling told him he was about to be spoken to, and sure enough the speaker crackled to life.

"Congratulations on making it this far. Just beyond this door is the goal. However, to make it through, you first need to go back and defeat - incapacitate or kill - all of the enemies that came before...on  _ all  _ the floors. You have plenty of time, so I wouldn't worry too much. Good luck~" Illumi turned around and began backtracking.

As much as killing would be more pleasant for him, he did have to consider that people were disqualified for attacking and killing people during the exam. He needed the Hunter's certificate for a job, he couldn't risk losing it for his own wants. 

There was nobody on the lava floor, nobody on the ice floor...so it was just the first floor. He wandered through the maze, incapacitating the woman from before, and two other prisoners who hadn't had a chance to attack him because he hadn't gone their direction. Oops. Oh well. Lippo had been counting on him to get a bit more lost. Still, this was quite tedious…

Once he'd taken care of everyone, he made his way back down, intentionally looking through every path for anyone he'd missed. When he got to the bottom, he took care of everyone there, he made his way back to the exit.

"Oh ho," Lippo said, "Impressive. Very well, then, go on through~" The door opened, and Illumi walked through a short hallway, made of plain stone. At the end, there was a stone door that slid open.

"Second place, Gittarackur! Total time-" Second place? He locked eyes with Hisoka, who grinned at him.

"You took your sweet time." Illumi chattered at him.

"I've been here building card towers for ages. It's been terribly boring." Illumi chattered at him again.

"Why did you take so long in the tower? I expected to find you waiting for me, I expected you to finish in twenty minutes!" Illumi chattered at him and sat down.

"Oh, you had a hard time, didn't you? Well, there's no need to worry, it happens to the best of us. Care to join me in a game of cards?"

And with that, Hisoka began dealing the cards. Hisoka regaled him with the story of the examiner from last year's pitiful revenge attempt, needling him all the while about finishing later than Hisoka.

"What a shame that the famed assassin finishes second place. I guess that settles it, then. I  _ am  _ better than you, after all." Illumi ignored him. A little needling certainly wasn't going to upset him.

***

"Yes! Gooooaaall!" Hisoka ignored him, plucking a card from Illumi's hand. A joker.

"How unlucky for me," he said. Illumi chattered at him.

"Th-they're...playing cards...Aha. Ahahaha..." Hisoka was delighted to know that they terrified the other contestants to that extent. Illumi chattered, the same as he always did.

***

"Well, I can take care of it." "Bold words coming from the person who came second in the hunter exam."

"Are you sure this won't be too difficult for you? You took so long in that tower I was genuinely starting to worry you'd died."

"What would they think if they knew you came second place in that tower?"

Illumi ignored Hisoka anytime he brought up the tower. Hisoka clearly was never going to let him live it down, but a little bit of needling wasn't going to upset him.

...Although maybe he should have gone a little faster. To spare himself the annoyance.


End file.
